Our "almost" first round draft pick...

...had a big day yesterday in the Pats win. Donte Hightower recovered a fumble for a touchdown and was part of a stingy Pats defense that dominated Tennessee. I'm not saying that in the long run DD won't be the better pick, but the guy that was our consensus number one got his career of to a strong start yesterday.

 

I thought of that yesterday when I saw him score a td. Still we need an o-line maybe even worse. Well I honestly don't know. It's looking more like 6 in one hand and half a dozen in the other to me.

 

DD was absolutely the right pick. I liked Hightower a lot, but you don't pass on an elite prospect at a huge position of need.

 

Totally agree. I was jumping up and down for us to pick him.

Our entire scheme falls on the linebackers. If we don't have at least two OUTSTANDING linebackers we will suffer. Right now we have maybe one. (Woodley) and he didn't show up last night. Harrison I'm not counting until he returns and shows something.

In a 3-4 defense you need 4 OUTSTANDING linebackers.

Remember, Lloyd, Green, Kirkland, Holmes, Brown, Bell. Just saying.....

 

I also agree that we should've taken DeCastro as well. But it's probably human nature to second guess yourself when you see a guy that you could've had doing a good job.

 

You agree that we made the right pick in DeCastro or that we should have taken Hightower?

 

I think we should of taken Hightower. Our oline is no better than it was last year. Even if DeCastro was healthy, I don't think it would change much.

Now, I do believe Hightower would of made a bigger difference on our defense. I always said we need a "thumper" in the middle. Like a "Levon Kirkland" who can blow up the middle since Dick Lebeau likes sending our inside backers to stick to olineman.

 

Oh I think I misunderstood. I thought you meant we should've taken DeCastro. I do think we should've taken him just for the simple fact that we've been screaming for an o line for about 6 years now.

 

Well, we already had Pouncey, Gilbert and we took Adams in the second. Foster doesn't play that bad at guard and I thought we need some impact players on defense since our linebacker core is the heart of our defense.

 

We might've had 2 wasted drafts in a row. I guess the jury is still out. I'm absolutely ready to say that Cameron Heyward has contributed NOTHING to this team whatsoever. I also think we made a mistake taking Timmons as well. I've never liked him and unless he turns it around I never will.

 

I still think that the talent is there on D for the most part but no one will light a fire under them. Fatigue makes cowards of us all and that is one out of shape defense.

 

He and Ziggy both seem to get pushed around alot! Neither of them are Aaron Smith, that's for sure.

 

I absolutely agree!

 

I'm not quite ready to give up on our d-lineman just yet. Especially what we drafted them for. Now, I would not have drafted a d-lineman for my 1st round pick because of what we ask them to do, take up blockers. Unless it's someone like Haloti Ngata or Richard Seymour type. The guys we drafted didn't light it up in college.

Aaron Smith, 7th round and Keisel i believe 6th or 5th round. We should of drafted linebackers. We can never have enough of good linebackers in a 3-4 alignment.

 

Their is a big difference between facing a bad team with a 2nd year QB as opposed to playing a playoff team with one of the greatest QB of all time. Plus, Hightower's TD was just a lucky bounce for him. Someone else caused the fumble and DH only had to run 3 yards to the endzone

 

Can't live in yesteryear... gotta deal with who we have on the roster and being Retired Military im a firm believer, that you have to take what was delt to you and make them the best they can be with great leadership, training and above all decipline and if they don't get it gotta weed them out and move on. On the serious note: gotta get the Oline fixed and clicking or we won't be able to put points on the board they look delusional and tired.

 

I'm with you that we should've taken DeCastro. But I know that it certainly sucks to see a guy that you could've had do something positive. I just hope that DeCastro takes this injured time and uses it to actually study his position. He was admittedly having a hard time before his injury. So maybe he can use his time wisely if at all possible.

 

well, actually watching the play, hightower had nothing to do with the hit and was 10 yds. downfield not guarding anyone and the ball was lying there all by itself in front of him. he ran to it and picked it up off the field uncontested and then did make a nice jump sideways to avoid the first tackler and ran all of 3 yds. into the EZ. it's not like he had some game for the ages. sorry still not buying his game yet and will pick DD 10 out of 10 times.

 

Shocked to see anybody write that we should have drafted anything but o-line last night after watching Denver's d-line race past Legursky and Adams all night while opening up very few running lanes for our backs.

Oh, and everybody's favorite whipping boy, Larry Foote? Played a solid game last night.

 

He was not the consensus number one. He was the consensus consolation pick because we all assumed DeCastro would be gone 15 picks earlier. I didn't know there was anyone that would have chosen him over DeCastro, outside of the Steelers' linebackers coach.

 

We could have had almost everyone in the league.

 

I've been a huge critic of the front seven D for a while but I would have taken DD because the O-line has been even worse. It's hard to make these comparisons when DD and DH are on different sides of the ball and even harder when DH is playing and DD is not. A better comparison would be to compare DH to Ziggy or Heyward. Will DH improve Pats defense? That's still to be determined but he got off to a decent start. Have Ziggy/Heyward improved our defense? It doesn't appear that they have. Maybe they haven't made it worse, but is it ok that we spend two first rounders for non-difference makers?